Nonproliferation News - October 28, 2009

FISSILE MATERIAL
Iran set to respond to atomic deal this week
Reuters by Reza Derakhshi

Iran backs uranium plan outline, but seeks changes
AP by Nasser Karimi and Brian Murphy

US making plans for Iran nuke strategy
AP by Robert Burns

Ex-US diplomat: Russia balks at zero nuke talks
AP by Douglas Birch

EAST ASIA
1. US, NKorean officials join in unofficial talks
AP by Amy Taxin
U.S. and North Korean officials wrapped up unofficial talks Tuesday with other northeast Asian countries about regional security, but with no reports of major breakthroughs.

2. N. Korean delegation heads to Beijing 
Yonhap
A North Korean delegation led by a governing party's secretary headed to Beijing at the invitation of its Chinese counterpart, Pyongyang's state media said Tuesday

3. Additional U.S.-North Korea Talks Possible This Week
GSN
The Obama administration yesterday did not rule out the possibility of additional informal talks this week with a North Korean envoy visiting the United States, the Yonhap News Agency reported (see GSN, Oct. 26).

4. Mayors ask Obama to visit Japanese A-bomb cities
AP by Malcolm Foster
Japanese newspapers and activists are calling for Barack Obama to become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima or Nagasaki, the only two cities ever devastated by atomic bombs, ahead of his visit to Japan next month.

MIDDLE EAST
5. Iran set to respond to atomic deal this week
Reuters by Reza Derakhshi
Iran's envoy to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency will present Tehran's position on a draft nuclear fuel deal in Vienna on Thursday, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported on Wednesday.

6. Iran Hints at Uranium Plan Changes
NYT by Robert F. Worth
A high-ranking Iranian official said Tuesday that even if the country agreed to a United Nations-sponsored plan to ship its enriched uranium abroad for further processing, it would not ship it all at once, Iranian news media reported.

7. Iran backs uranium plan outline, but seeks changes
AP by Nasser Karimi and Brian Murphy
Iran accepted the general framework of a U.N.-draft nuclear deal Tuesday, but said it would seek "important changes" that could test the willingness of world powers to make concessions in exchange for a pact to rein in Tehran's ability to make atomic warheads.

8. U.S. set to respond if Iran defiant: Obama aide
Reuters by Matt Spetalnick
The United States will be ready to respond if Iran fails to take tangible steps soon to meet its commitments over its nuclear program, President Barack Obama's national security adviser warned on Tuesday.

9. US Senate committee to vote on Iran fuel sanctions
Reuters by Tom Doggett
The U.S. Senate Banking Committee will vote Thursday on legislation that would impose sanctions on Iran's gasoline suppliers in order to pressure Tehran to give up its nuclear program, the panel's chairman said.

10. Iraq approaches IAEA for approval for nuclear plant
London Times by Oliver August
Iraq has expressed an interest in reviving its nuclear technology, bombed into oblivion by Israel in 1981 and the US ten years later. An Iraqi minister says Baghdad has contacted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), based in Vienna, to seek its approval to relaunch a peaceful nuclear programme.

SOUTH ASIA
11. Clinton Warns Pak About Nuclear-Armed Terrorists
Outlook India
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today asked Pakistan to face up to the gravity of threat posed by nuclear weaponised terrorists group in its midst as it urged the country to join nuclear non-proliferation process.

RUSSIA/FSU
12. Russia says U.S. to respect its arms treaty concerns
Reuters
Russia expects to receive within days U.S. proposals taking into account Moscow's concerns regarding a new strategic weapons deal negotiated by the two nations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.

13. Top US security adviser to Russia for nuclear talks: WHouse
AFP
US National Security Adviser James Jones travels to Moscow this week for talks aimed at forging a new US-Russian agreement on limiting their nuclear arsenals, the White House said Tuesday.

14. Verification regime of new arms cuts treaty should be easier: Russian FM 
Xinhua
The verification regime of a new nuclear arms reduction agreement should be less rigid compared to the expiring Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1), Russian news agencies quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Tuesday.

15. Ex-US diplomat: Russia balks at zero nuke talks
AP by Douglas Birch
Russia is not ready to agree to a proposed new round of arms control talks after a deal is reached on extending the START 1 nuclear treaty, a U.S. nuclear expert said Tuesday.

16. Experimental Russian ICBM Would Violate START, Senator Says
GSN
U.S. Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) accused Russia last week of testing a new ICBM that, if deployed, would violate the terms of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the Washington Times reported (see GSN, Oct. 26).

EUROPE

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
17. DOE, IAEA Collaborate to Put Decades of Nuclear Research Online
IAEA Press Release
Decades of nuclear research supported by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and its predecessor agencies are being made searchable on the World Wide Web, as part of a collaborative effort between the DOE and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The project aims to give researchers, academics, and the general public access to vast volumes of valuable nuclear-related research over the internet.

MISCELLANEOUS
18. Bill to ban foreign nuke waste makes small advance
AP by Brock Vergakis
A bill designed to keep foreign countries from disposing their nuclear waste in the United States is taking a small but significant step toward getting a U.S. House committee vote for the first time.

19. White House Nuclear Weapons Goals Analyzed
Aviation Week by Michael Bruno
The goal of a world without nuclear weapons and related nonproliferation efforts will be secured not by the looming Russian-U.S. deal over a follow-on Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start), but by the “treaty after next,” a panel of U.S. experts in Washington agreed Oct. 26.

OPINION
20. One Last Option for Securing Iranian Enriched Uranium
Huffington Post by Bruno Pellaud
The Iranian Government is about to refuse shipping 75% of its stock of low-enriched uranium to Russia before the end of the year. Instead, it will offer shipment in small batches. This is unacceptable. The Geneva and Vienna talks focused on the expectation that most of the uranium would be shipped beyond Iranian borders soon. Indeed, the West needs a solid confidence-building gesture from Iran to reduce the risk of a breakout scenario (the domestic re-enrichment of the accumulated stock to weapon levels) and also a genuine token of seriousness for the forthcoming negotiations.

21. Analysis: US making plans for Iran nuke strategy
AP by Robert Burns
The Obama administration is quietly laying the groundwork for long-range strategy that could be used to contain a nuclear-equipped Iran and deter its leaders from using atomic weapons.

22. Intelligence review needed
Washington Times by Paula A. DeSutter
Few intelligence assessments have proved more controversial than the November 2007 National Intelligence Estimate "Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities," which stated that Iran's nuclear weapons program had been halted in 2003.  After the Qom disclosure, it’s time for the U.S. to conduct a new estimate.

23. Now is not the time to let a nuclear Iran off the hook
The National by Emile Hokayem
Iran is expected to respond in the coming days to a deal brokered in Vienna by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that, if approved, would provide some respite in the continuing nuclear dispute. But beyond providing an understandable sigh of relief, does the deal assist the wider effort to persuade Iran to demonstrate nuclear transparency and good behaviour? In other words, who benefits more from the time gained – Iran or the international community?

24. Sanction Iran Now
Forbes by Henry D. Sokolski
Assuming the U.S. and its allies are serious about preventing Iran from getting the bomb, though, waiting would be a mistake. Instead, whatever Iran does, we should impose additional sanctions and continue to do so until Iran suspends its nuclear fuel-making activities and allows the IAEA to flood the country with nuclear inspectors.

25. Biden's missile-defense missteps
NY Post by Peter Brookes
Vice President Joe Biden's trip last week to Poland and the Czech Republic may have helped soothe rattled allies after Team Obama pitched overboard the W-era, anti-Iran missile shield that was to be deployed in both countries. But the new missile-defense plan he pitched has problems.